Review: Call Me Grim by Elizabeth Holloway

The truck should have turned Libbi Piper into a Libbi Pancake -- and it would have, too, if Aaron hadn't shown up and saved her life. The problem? Aaron's the local Grim Reaper... and he only saved Libbi's life because he needs someone to take over his job. Now, Libbi has two days to choose between dying like she was supposed to, or living a lonely life as Death Incarnate. Talk about a rock and a hard place. And the choice goes from hard to sucktastic when her best friend shows up marked: condemned as a future murderer. Libbi could have an extra week to stop the murder and fix the mark... but only if she accepts Aaron's job as Reaper, trapping herself in her crappy town forever, invisible and inaudible to everyone except the newly dead. But, if she refuses? Her best friend is headed straight for Hell.

I received a review copy from the publisher in exchange of an honest review. Thank you!

I was thinking about how to start this review - as usual -, but then I decided to just go and say: I feel so so bad about giving it such a low rating. Because it's not like it was a horrible book, phew, I won't even look at it any more. Not at all. In fact, it was pretty decent. If I'm being a reader, I'd even go as far as saying I quite enjoyed it. But since I'm typing out a review, I will have to think as a reviewer and in that case, I consider the rating justified.

Let's start with one of the worst; insta-love(ish). I added the "ish", because although they seemed to delve into the "I'll sacrifice myself for you" fairly soon, the romance was so on and off, I had a hard time deciding whether it was insta-love or insta-attraction. To me, insta-attraction is a perfectly okay thing, unlike insta-love, which tends to bother me. However, in this case, I believe it doesn't even matter any more as the on and off romance was annoying enough as it is.

Another rather irritating aspect was the faulty world-building. Yes, it wasn't lacking original and witty ideas, but there was just nothing that would have limited the reaper's powers. They had every type of ablitities in order to make their lives easier, not to mention Libbi's exceptional, never-before-seen superpowers that happened to trick one of the biggest drawbacks of the Grim Reaper's life. Only by accident of course.

Moreover, though Libbi's voice was fresh and livid, the humor felt forced at some points. Sure as hell am I fond of wit, but when instead of laughing I'm like...

...that's too much.

On the positive side, Ms Holloway nailed the pacing exquisitely. I wasn't bored for a second. I read the book in two sittings.

Also, despite it's (not small) awrinesses, the story was entertaining and peculiar. The latter came just in time as lately I've felt like very many of the YA books are just too similar as many of them are based on the same tropes.

Overall, I'm sad to rate it down, because as a reader it was an enjoyable read. But if you tend to be more critical and be bothered by the mentioned aspects, you should be more careful reading it. Still, I do think Call Me Grim's worth a shot.

Cover: 4/5

Characters: 3/5

Plot: 3.5/5

Pacing: 5/5

Romance: 2/5

Style/Writing: 3/5

Elizabeth Holloway is a writer of young adult fiction living in Southern Pennsylvania with her two teen children and their growing number of pets.

In addition to writing, she is a registered nurse, an avid reader, an out-of-practice artist, a karaoke singer, and music lover. She is still trying to decide what she wants to be when she grows up.